Russian tennis players spent another game week participating in competitions in Marseille and Abu Dhabi. The most representative was the women's tournament in the UAE, where three Russians went. Veronika Kudermetova, unfortunately, left him in the first round, unable to cope with the qualifier, the British Heather Watson. But her compatriots performed with dignity.
Lyudmila Samsonova defeated two Ukrainians at the start: Lesya Tsurenko and Angelina Kalinina, giving only five games to their rivals, and then defeated Barbora Krejcikova. The confrontation with the Czech woman, seeded fourth, turned out to be difficult. And it’s not even about the game of her opponent, who is higher in the WTA rankings.
The Russian made breaks confidently at the beginning of the games, but then began to get nervous in the end. As a result, she almost allowed her opponent to reach a tiebreaker in the first set, and then similar excitement almost mixed the cards in the second. Fortunately, Lyudmila had a decent advantage, and Barbora simply failed to fight back.
However, in the semi-finals the athlete was no longer able to cope with Elena Rybakina, although she had previously successfully played with the representative of Kazakhstan: the score in personal matches was 4:0 in favor of Lyudmila. This time, the opponent played superbly in the first and third games, giving Samsonovna only two games. There was a slight decline in the game of the fifth racket of the world in the middle of the match, which the Russian took advantage of, but it was not as long as required for victory.
According to the honored coach Viktor Yanchuk, Samsonova and Rybakina are still athletes of different levels.
“It’s not easy to win against Elena. But there was a struggle, Samsonova crept close to Rybakina. This gives reason to say that Lyudmila is making progress. She is approaching the leaders of women's tennis. I would like Samsonova to win some good tournament. She may not be ready for the Grand Slam yet, but another tournament won will allow her to become confident in her abilities,” Yanchuk was quoted as saying by “Championship.”
Alas, the first Russian racket Daria Kasatkina, who made it to the second final this season in Abu Dhabi, is not yet ready to fight Rybakina. In Adelaide, in the decisive match, she lost without a chance to Elena Ostapenko. There was no serious fight this time either - 1:6, 4:6.
At the same time, according to the domestic tennis player, she simply did not have enough strength to fight. Still, she had two three-set matches with Brazilian Beatrice Haddad-Maia and Frenchwoman Diane Parry.
“Losing finals is not very pleasant, but, as Daniil Medvedev said after the Australian Open, it is better to play three finals than to lose the first three rounds. Therefore, I agree with him. By the way, today is his birthday, happy birthday!” — Kasatkina said in an interview on the court.
At the same time, according to two-time Grand Slam doubles champion Andrei Olkhovsky, it’s not about Daria’s physical condition. Rybakina simply plays more powerfully.
“She is faster in terms of ball speed. Kasatkina would have had a chance if Rybakina had served unsuccessfully, but today Rybakina was objectively stronger,” Olkhovsky admitted.
However, Kasatkina’s performance in Abu Dhabi can be an asset in any case. Thanks to reaching the final, she will rise in the WTA rankings from 14th to 13th position, while Samsonova will remain in 15th place. Now both athletes will go to the “thousander” in Doha.
The only Russian to take part in ATP tournaments this week was Karen Khachanov. After a failure in Melbourne, where in the fourth round he lost to the triumphant major Jannik Sinner, the tennis player went to Marseille.
At the start of the competition, the domestic athlete met with Roberto Bautista Agut, who also did not play well in Australia and fell out of the top 100. As it turned out, this result of the Spaniard was not an accident: Karen defeated him 6:2, 6:2, and then knocked out the Chinese Zhang Zhizhen (6:1, 6:4) without any problems.
However, Khachanov still failed to reach the first final of the season. Grigor Dimitrov blocked his path. Previously, the athletes took to the court against each other three times, and each time the Bulgarian was stronger. The confrontation in Marseille was no exception.
The tennis match turned out to be very stubborn. In the first set, the advantage was on Karen's side; he served better and had the initiative, while his opponent made a lot of mistakes. However, with the score 5:3 in his favor, the Russian missed two opportunities to take the game, and then unexpectedly gave up his game. However, in the tiebreaker, the 18th racket of the world still crushed his opponent - 7:3.
Further, Khachanov was no longer so concentrated and gave the Bulgarian more and more opportunities to attack. And Dimitrov took advantage of the chance, moving the game into the third, decisive game. This time, the opponents acted more cautiously and, as a result, the finalist of the tournament was determined in the next tiebreaker, in which the Russian frankly failed to cope with his nerves: he led 4:2, then gave away four points in a row, winning back the Bulgarian’s first match point, but still with his own mistake finished the match.
At the same time, according to Davis Cup finalist Andrei Chesnokov, Karen was hampered in the end not so much by nerves as by excessive haste.
“The match was simply brilliant, there was intrigue from the very beginning to the end, and if compared with the match between Hugo Humbert and Hubert Hurkacz, it was much weaker. It seems to me that at crucial moments Karen was in too much of a hurry. He led 4:3 in the tiebreaker, served a good serve, and then for some reason went forward, where Grigor caught him. Then he lost another of his serves, and then, with the score 4:6, he performed a brilliant serve technique that touched the net,” TASS quotes Chesnokov as saying.
We can only hope that the trip to Marseille will have a positive effect on Khachanov, who has improved his position in the ATP rankings and moved up one place. Next, he is entered into tournaments in Doha and Dubai.